Chapter 9

Magic perhaps

Helltanz's notes: World building then finally Hogwarts. Also people read my profile, its very helpful in not simply asking questions, but also to find out what I'm doing. It will tell you what I'm working on fic wise at present.

Disclaimer: come on you should know the drill by now

Chapter begin

The ride on the Hogwart's train had taught him one thing at least... and that was make sure you don't skip on breakfast in favor of exploring further magics. Also it would be a miracle if he didn't seriously hurt someone for being a pest or an idiot, or a racist idiot, even Malfoy, who had thoroughly proven his stupidity, wasn't quite that stupid; to Harry at least.

Right now Harry was ocupied with the rest of the purebloods who had arrived with Malfoy. Each compartment of the express could seat eight people in theory. In practice however however most people sat with their friends, and only filled up a compartment partially. Due however to the obvious magical nature of the train; being bigger on the inside than its outside should permit did allow the train to carry everyone comfortably.

It wasn't too far off to speculate that the train had been meant to accommodate more students sometime in the past. To that angle wizarding history was rather vague with hard numbers and specifics. Even so financial information gave a more interesting picture. The world wars, the various dark lords, and even British Imperialism had all had effects on the population of the wizarding world though of course this had been no where near the level in numbers of the muggle world. At one point however the growth rate and population of the wizarding world, both in Great Britain and the old world had been higher.

The wizarding world had thrived during ancient times particularly in Rome, China, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. When those ancient civilizations had declined so to had the wizarding world When the Roman Empire fell wizarding society fractured, and seperate national, and tribal identities formed, and continued to exist in modern day. This had been the end of a golden age that had existed since the Roman Republic.

The republics of Italy remained divided, and Germany had only briefly unified under Grindelwald before collapsing in the wake of his defeat. France and England were really the only true major powers in western Europe, and they made sure everyone knew it.

There was a valid reason for this division, those who tried to unify typically were branded as Dark Lords or had unfortunate accidents. All to quickly did France or England label a foreigner a dark lord for attempting to unify. They had for centuries saw it as far too dangerous to their own influence.

Hogwarts was as divided. The four houses seemed to exist just to cause contention amongst the student body. It all honestly, as Harry perceived it, encouraged them to fight, and Harry didn't mind at all.

The Houses seemed, especially Gryffindor, and Slytherin to be prone to or easily provoked to fighting. There in was the issue to be sure, as being sorted to either could be an event that would put him on rocky grounds at best with members of the opposite house. Hufflepuff was considered the weakest of the houses, a fact they might not take well, which brought up another point of contention; not that Harry cared.

"Fighting the Death Eaters isn't smart, Potter," Theodore Nott remarked scathingly. While both Malfoy and Nott were both Racist, with a capital R, and believers of blood purity one was worse than the other. One was also less snobby too.

Nott was worse because while Malfoy presumed his pure blood status made him special, most of his arrogance came from faith in Daddy's power. Lucius was ably powered, and smart after all. "And what would you know of smart?" Anger and annoyance fed flames, "You see I'm quite certain trying to pick a fight with me is suicide. Just like when, not if, I kill your mask wearing daddy I'll be sure to send his head back to you." The pulse of magic Harry released slammed Nott against the wall. There was no beam of red light but this was the closest Harry had to the common stunning spell; stupefy. In this particular case the stunning spell actually had greater range than Harry's equivalent.

While Daphne didn't react, and Katie, was admittedly, too busy enjoying the death eater spawn getting knocked out to notice someone else had a thought, and it wasn't Malfoy. 'This is Harry Potter.' Tracy Davis shrunk back away from Nott and into a corner.

Actually, not that Harry knew or cared right now, as far as things went Nott's father opposed Rossier. More importantly was sticking to the sidelines at present, but Harry had no way of knowing that. Nott senior might have escaped a prison sentence, but his affiliation was well known. For Harry that meant it was 'safe to assume', that Theo was an enemy.

This wasn't just boys being boys. As far as thing were Theodore's first thought would have been to go for his wand. That would have exasperated Harry's aggression and no doubt provoked the already ready to fight wizard to burn first. Even Harry knew this was going to far, Nott had magic that meant he could fight back and that meant, in Harry's mind being not a Muggle meant there was little reason to spare him any quarter in fight. Nott had magic if this escalated Harry would go to far.

Nott got thrown out of the apartment, and the door got shut behind them. Once this was done a soft voice spoke up, "he does raise a point, Potter. Not everyone will be so keen on your opposition to the Death Eaters."

Someone would come upon Nott later on surely. For while Muggleborns seemed for the most part to stick to their compartments they sat in, purebloods and half bloods would go to and fro to visit friends in other compartments. Nott would be fine in the hallway.

"You're referring to older students," He remarked. A valid point. The older students of pureblood lines commonly called the dark families were an issue.

Katie spoke up, beating Harry to the point he had paused before addressing, "Harry can handle them."

"I've killed death eaters, but we know this." He remarked, "but this isn't so much an issue as proving it." Harry stated. Beating the idiots with sufficent application of magic might solve the problem, but also might risk antagonizing others. Oh well it was worth the chance. Contrary to the idea, while there would quite likely be some idiots, namely the overly eager to put on a death eater mask, not everyone in Slytherin house was so keen on picking a fight with Harry. Not everyone would be like that, some recognized that Harry had a lack of restraint once a fight started. Thinking of Nott laying their unconscious and defenseless in the hall made Harry want to drive the message home. It was actually a good thing Nott was out of the compartment and out like a light, because his snobbishness would surely have just provoked Harry further.

Still the girl who'd spoken up raised a point. The presence of them, the new first years who would likely be Slytherins, raised issues.

Harry as a rule, or what basically amounted to a rule, avoided his peers. This of course had been due more to their lack of magic. Too much chance of an incident, and by incident conflagration would be a more apt description. In this case things were different. In this case despite the fact he could, and would have little qualms about burning them alive, he knew he shouldn't.

He was at a disadvantage. This was his issue, his burden, and the end result of childhood. Where purebloods were cloistered by tradition, Harry isolated himself for protection, pre magic, and for secrecy after its discovery. He didn't deal with others, but there was no choice but to interact.

Harry still would have preferred being clear of all this chatter. They tossed around magic to easily, these purebloods, but then there were no muggles around. It had been all to easy to adopt the word. Still they but him on a hair's breadth of the edge. They used magic for jokes, but it was still magic. Hard to tell what was a prank and what was an attack. He was already tired and hungry.

Malfoy was a nuisance, was even of a nuisance now than his jabbering had been at the clothes shop in the wizard alley. Silently Harry considered that it would be astounding if Malfoy survived all the years of schooling if he annoyed other people half as much as he did Harry.

The sad thing was Harry wasn't the only one annoyed the blond's fellow purebloods were getting impatient with his constant talking. Katie for example was ready to throttle the blond if he didn't shut up.

Nott was a pest, and would be one at school. Between the three, Katie, Malfoy, and Nott though it was difficult to pay attention to the others. Everybody wanted to speak and no one wanted to listen.

– Scene Break-

Harry Potter's actions against the Death Eaters had its effects, and would have its effects on Society; good and bad effects. Following the Dark Lord's fall the Death Eaters had fractured splitting off to follow their own new leadership. There were also younger pureblood wizards, in their late teens and twenties, who were discontent with the way things were, but all that would come into play later on.

People were too shell shocked right now. Even the old men who played the great game of politics and influence peddling were amongst them, but they knew a change when they saw one. The fact a number of them had children at Hogwarts, well that would make things interesting. Harry was for the time being unaware of this. School, even magical school was still school.

Eleven yearolds didn't involve themselves in the intricacies of politics.

Abusive homes bred scarred children, when you added magic to the mix problems were sure to follow. Harry could truthfully say his opion of others' opinions could amount to an 'and I care?' or something to that extent more often than not.

"Mister Potter," Professor McGonagall began, "and miss Bell please follow me, to the hospital wing."

Harry's opinion of this teacher was less than sterling, though it wasn't anywhere close to loathing. He could honestly say he liked her, but it wasn't like he hated her. To contrast Harry's noncommittal opinion Katie genuinely liked the head of Gryffindor house. "are we in trouble professor?" She inquired, given the ruckus on the train it wasn' unlikely they could be in trouble.

"No Miss Bell, we are, as I said, merely going ot the hospital win so that Madame Pomfrey may check on the both of you," The stern looking woman responded. "Both of you come with me," the transfiguration professor instructed before heading up the stairs. Filius would be handling the introduction for the newly arrived students, and taking care of the 'explanation' of the Hogwarts house system while she handled this.

A ghost passed through the dark haired wizard as he stepped onto the stairs. The feeling of the spectre was highly disconcerting. Harry brushed his robes off. The trail of frigid unnerving cold vanished as heat bubbled within.

Magical castles were vast structures, which could with little effort reshape themselves. Hogwarts was a prime example of this ability. It was a mishmash of every conceivable castle feature into a single spectacular structure. These magical castles were awe inspiring. Hogwarts wasn't attacked because to do so was suicide.

Magical castles weren't built anymore because they were expensive, and required so much in the way of manpower. They were an endeavor that could require entire clans of wizards to create. These were relics, invincible pieces of a forgotten age. Unlike their muggle siblings they could not be starved out, the typical method of beating a castle.

Harry followed down the stone corridor, and up another flight of stairs after the professor. Hogwarts, just the interior of the central keep, was immense. The fact was probably to be expected given it had been funded, and built by the combined effort of four legendary wizards.

Honestly though the four sounded straight out of a modern low fantasy book. Harry thought the infamous founder of slytherin looked more than a little strange the monkey like features giving him the appearance reminiscent of a figure from chinese mythology, but that was neither here nor there.

The hospital wing as it turned out was a collection of beds, and a few adjacent rooms for more severe treatment, Harry speculated, located all on the fourth floor. The main room housed the majority of the beds, and was defined outside of that by the number of large windows.

The matron had come out of, presumably, her office to greet them. Almost immediately however she went about fussing over Katie, which was fine for Harry not so much for Katie.

"Why am I here?" It was just an issue of pride, it kind of hurt it to ask the question.

"Miss Bell recently suffered a bout of magical exhaustion," He frowned at McGonagall's explanation. "and?"
"Mr. Potter this is serious."
Was it really? He shrugged out of impulse, it didn't seem like it.

In the mean time Madame Pomfrey continued busily fretting over Katie and the diagnostic spell.

She was fine, they were just over reacting, he assuaged himself.

As it turned out what the mistress of the hospital wing was fretting over a minor anomaly, which Harry had no experience of, and outside of a minor spec of interest, but he quickly lost interest. The matron speculated that it might be a by product of Harry's 'cure'. Harry's appetite was the more pressing matter, and McGonagall lead them down to the Great Hall after she was sure the feast had already started. Harry ignored the gawking, and whispers for the most part other than the 'I mustn't flambe the rude, and idiotic' mantra of the day.

Katie lead them to 'their' table, and Harry went on to eating. In truth he'd never seen so much food in his whole life on one table, much less the total amount of the four house tables. This truly was an absurd amount of food. He was just hungry right now so he didn't care about the fancy ceiling, or the golden plates, or the countless floating candles. It'd been a long day from getting up this morning to here and now, and even he had to eat. What he had paid attention to was the size of the school. Even the tables themselves were immense, and the hall was easily capable of doubling as a grand ballroom.

Katie had voiced some disappointment over missing the sorting, whatever that was exactly, but she had all to quickly gotten drawn into a conversation with one of the red headed twins from earlier over what McGonagall had wanted. Outside of the few students he'd met with on the train Harry knew no one here, but that likely would have been the case with any new school, magical or not.

Almost reflexively he reached up to trace the scar on his forehead. Now that was weird. A few years ago the scar had begun to fade from its original angry, vivid red, to its present faded discolored mark. He looked up, was it the potions master.

He had been a death eater. That'd been an issue seeing as so far all the ones he seemed to meet had tried to kill him. Harry mused on what'd be like to send a cluster of magical bolts tearing into the man's spine..

"That's professor Snape, Harry."
"He's a greasy Death Eater, is what is. You've had the right idea with that lot so far," another student, older, who'd Harry had never seen interjected. "He's also Slytherin's head of house, like thats not trouble enough they're our rivals."

The Death Eaters had fractioned, and splintered after Voldemort's fall so was Snape an enemy. It couldn't be said for certain, one way or another.

"Slytherin has one the house cup for the last six years," Another, also older student put in.

Fred or perhaps George spoke up changing the subject, "Eh Harry pass the cookies." Harry helped himself to the pastries as he did so.

From the talk of the ongoing conversation it seemed like Slytherin would be a pain in the ass this year. The wizard took a bite out of one of the pastries. Jocks. It was a bit of a juvenile sentiment. The conclusion of the actual eating portion of the feast involved singing, much to Harry's distaste, which didn't finish fast enough with the red head twins' overly dramatic presentation of their 'prowess' when it came to reciting the school song. In the end though the school song got sang, and that was that.

Hogwarts as Harry had already borne witness to was divided into four houses each of which had separate dorms, each of which that were located away from each other. Hogwarts itself was quite large, and was connected by large hallways, and more problematically by moving magical staircases. That was to say the stairs moved, and shiftted as they wanted. This, as they were warned, made it very easy to get lost in the already large castle.

The House of the Lion based out of one of the castle's larger main towers. Gryffindor's common room was protected, and Harry used that term lightly, by a magic talking painting of a fat woman in an old fashioned pink dress, a drunk fat woman. It didn't exactly give a good first impression, or reassure him much. In any case the dorms themselves comprised a large common room at the bottom of the tower, followed by stairs leading up to each years respective sleeping quarters.

Muggle castles had nothing to compare to this, which of course was due to magic. Magical fortifications had numerous addons, which without magic their contemporaries couldn't hope to pull off. These addons gave the castle its distinct fantasy vibe. The tower which comprised Gryffindor's dormitory started on what was easily at least the tenth, or eleventh floor, and was by itself as many stories tall, while being quite wide. In fact it would be relatively easy to give the towers, not simply Gryffindor's, and the central portions of the castle the title of skyscraper. What was amazing was that Gryffindor's tower was not even the largest, or second largest. It was definitely something Harry wouldn't mind exploring.

Despite the last few generations of fighting purebloods actually outnumbered muggleborns, with half bloods forming a far more solid majority in both Hogwarts, and the wizarding world as a whole. This was partially due to muggleborns being while not hyper rare, were uncommon. There was also the fact that outside a few anomalies most purebloods had a few children. The incoming class of Gryffindor first years, like the other houses new students, was about forty kids.

One of the Weasley brothers stood rigid and pompous before the assembled first years puffed up as much as he could be. It honestly made him look like an idiot who was trying to look important. A number of the older, than Percy, male students blatantly just pushed past him, while those younger than him, but not first years walked around in a hurry to get to their dorms.

"Relax Harry, your trunk is in your dorm, everybody is divided into groups of five per room." He nodded, great four other guys. Katie headed off to her own door after he acknowledged her, a moment later he'd wished he had joined her.

Percy Weasley came off as a pretentious douche bag to put it mildly. "Welcome, welcome everyone. To Gryffindor House." He announced in an overly cheery voice that screamed born brown nosing bureaucrat. In any event after a totally unneeded lecture, and speech, and it was only after Percy finished that they were directed to their dorms. The boys, like the older students before them, headed up one flight of stairs, and the girls up another. First years got the next level of the tower for their dorms, the level above the common room, where as seventh years got the best view from the top of the tower. It was probably meant as favoritism or for its symbolism to the older students, the further you got in school, and what not. Harry didn't particularly care.

In any event the spiral staircase leading to the boys dorm area opened to a floor with doors leading to several rooms. Beside each door was a plaque announcing who all were assigned to that particular room. Inside the appropriate room he found five four poster beds, and at the base of one his trunk. He wasted no time fishing out the key unlocking it, and after the lock clicked open put his bag away.

So this big school was the most famous in all of England, geez what a day, and they were pushing this house thing down their throats weren't they.

– Chapter conclusion –

Helltanz's notes: We're at Hogwarts, finally. Read profile for status of updates for this fic and others, check frequently.

Regarding the chapter itself I honestly wasn't likely how my written copy turned out after I went back and read it so this chapter may end up being rewritten, as it is I cut off a page off the end. That page might get rewritten and added to this chapter at a later date.

Next chapter will cover the start of classes.